#233058
While I'm waiting for the darn Krylon Fusion to dry thoroughly, I thought that I would take a few pictures of my fine Alkaline shell in its current state, and document my build a little. Here you see my shell, my completed motherboard/ALICE frame assembly, and my complete set of greeblies that are eagerly waiting for the final coat of black. Also, just for the fun of it, I took a few pictures of a few parts mocked up on the shell. While I was taking these pictures, it finally hit me: I have a Proton Pack! ;)

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My Alkaline shell. Lovingly sanded an painted. I started with 100 grit until I figured out the fun of sanding fiberglass. Then I switched to wet sand. :P I wet sanded it up to 400 grit, came out pretty well I think. I used filling putty in a few spots, and I filed a couple of blotches here and there. Nothing major. For painting I used Krylon Fusion Nickel Shimmer, straight on the fiberglass. Should make a nice tough coat for weathering (If I manage to weather it. I love the "brand new" look)

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Another shot of my shell. I love that thing! :P

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Completed motherboard/ALICE pack assembly. Genuine ALICE pack frame with LC2 straps, painted black (Krylon BBQ) The frame is mounted on the motherboard with 3 3/8" carriage bolts. It won't go anywhere. :P

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My work table. No I don't actually work there. :P Full set of greeblies for the pack and the thrower, safelly guarded by ED-209 who shoots any trespassers. And a printed set of Stefan's plan for reference. Essential! :)

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Aluminum greeblies by jpa35, filler, booster and injector tubes by irricanian, PPD and crank knob by Nick-a-tron, and ion arm by Exoray. Nothing but the best by the best! :D

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My box of surprises. There's a whole lot of greeblies in there, plus every single bolt I'll need to finish this thing. I like to keep thing nice and tidy. :)

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Completed booster tube assembly, ready to be bolted on. Tube by irricanian, tube plug by Exoray, and aluminum frame by jpa35. That thing is incredible!

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Full pack mockup. That's when I finally understood that I had a Proton Pack. I was giggling when I took those pictures. :D

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Another beauty shot. Can't wait to finish that thing! The bumper is Exoray's, by the way.

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A final shot for the road. Thanks for watching! :D
Last edited by Filandrius on April 14th, 2012, 1:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.
maranzintosh liked this
#233077
Nice work! Between you and quietontheset, the wait for my Alkaline shell is becoming unbearable! Did you prime your motherboard first, or did you just go right to the Krylon black?
#233083
Ha, the joy of waiting for an Alkaline shell. Enjoy it while it last, my friend. :P

I used some primer for galvanized steel on my motherboard. But it's the only aluminum part that I primed. The rest is straight Krylon BBQ Black.
#233087
Filandrius wrote:Ha, the joy of waiting for an Alkaline shell. Enjoy it while it last, my friend. :P.
Ha! John says that run five should be done and shipped by Saturday, so I have my fingers crossed! I have some vacation time coming up so I plan to pat around the house and work on my pack!
#233409
Thanks for the kind words guys, that's very appreciated. :)

I'm now on a break of sort... Krylon Fusion takes 7 days to cure completely, and I don't want to risk my final coat before then. Black paint (Krylon BBQ, like everything else) will go on next Monday. Meanwhile I finished some small details, like cutting the tubing, drilling the final holes, dry fitting everything, etc...

Some things I forgot to mention that could be useful: I used some 1/2" aluminum spacers between the motherboard and the ALICE frame. They're 3/8" ID, and fits my carriage bolts perfectly. They're very well done, I got them on eBay, they're not that hard to find. I also bought some 1/4" spacers that I will use with the bumper, for example.

As for the greeblies, I try to drill and tap for absolutely everything, even in fiberglass and resin, except when I can put bolts on the inside. I also used some 10-32 brass inserts for a couple of things (like the ion arm cap) and I bought some spare Clippard barbs for the injector tubing. For the Clippard, instead of dremelling the tab on the bottom, I drilled a little notch on the shell so that it can't fit any other way (hard to explain, it's kinda visible on the pictures) For the crank knob I found some cheap potentiometers at my local electronic store... It fits perfectly, and my crank knob will be functional. Maybe I'll wire it for volume when I get my sound kit. :P Anyway, I'll try to take some pictures as I assemble everything, if my camera doesn't go out on me (I really need a new one ;))

I almost forgot: I'd like to thanks Libtechinit for his incredible build thread (which really belongs in the tutorial section :P) Maybe 90% of my build will be using techniques that I discovered right there (like lag bolts for the filler tubes and the ion arm, etc...) Thanks to him, my pack will be build like a tank, and a well-build tank at that. Thanks man! :)
#234160
Minor update (and another delay for the final coat)

After finishing painting the shell, and thoroughly examining it for mistakes and/or omissions, I decided that it needed a little more work. So I got my sandpaper and putty and got back to work. I applied putty to a couple of spots and holes that I missed (I'm using Dupli-color spot putty, by the way; I had some left from repairing my car) and after a few hours sanded every spot on the shell that wasn't as smooth as I liked (which is very smooth :P) The silver coat made some flaws very visible, which was useful in finding them to say the least.

Then I reapplied a couple of coats of paint on the shell using the last of my silver paint. The next day, still unsatisfied about the roughness of the finish (the metal speckles in the silver paint make some deposits which sometimes creates a rough surface, like sandpaper, ironically :P) I wet sanded the whole thing with 1000 grit (another leftover from my car repairs) At long last my shell is ready for the final coat, and smooth to my satisfaction. :)

More to come! :)
#234305
Crix: you said it, bro. Don't want to loose one of those. :P

Nick: ask and you shall receive! :D

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The "final" version of my shell. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's a lot cleaner and smoother. The remaining flaws will be covered up by parts and/or labels.

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My revised power cell window. My other pictures really showed how crooked it was. I think that it's straight now. :P

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Speaking of windows, the shell in the cyclotron is way too thick. Can't put lenses in there! I'll have to sand the interior, and I don't have the tools for it right now. I'll have to buy a rotating sanding disk for my drill or something.

That's it for now! :)
#234622

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Speaking of windows, the shell in the cyclotron is way too thick. Can't put lenses in there! I'll have to sand the interior, and I don't have the tools for it right now. I'll have to buy a rotating sanding disk for my drill or something.

That's it for now! :)
Didn't you order lenses from Kris? I was under the impression that they were mounted inside the shell over the openings.
#234643
Yes, I did, and yes, they will. My point is that the thickness of the fiberglass around the opening is 1- too thick and 2- uneven. One hole had 1/4" thickness, the other 3/4", etc... The inside of the shell isn't even, mounting the lenses like this would be sloppy.

Anyway, the problem is solved. I'll try to post pictures of my solution! :)
#234650
Okeydokey! As I was saying earlier, my problem is solved! I ended up Dremeling the heck out of the inside of my shell until the thickness of all the windows was 1/4", give or take.

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The Cyclotron holes are all even now! :)

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My solution applied to Power Cell window.

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The inside. Result: Nice little grooves for the Cyclotron lenses. Round grooves. What? Lenses are square?

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Not anymore they ain't. Dremeled the heck out of them too. I was covered in tiny red flakes. :P Look at them, all sitting snuggly in their littles grooves.

That's some little reflectors that I found on the 'Bay, by the way. Plastic welded to the lenses.

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The inside of the Power Cell...

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...And the lens fitted inside it. :)

It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. :)
#234654
Wow, nice work! You're way braver than I am using a dremel to round off your lenses! I'll probably just sand down any uneven areas and keep the lenses square.
#234703
Actually it was way more scarier to Dremel the shell itself. :P No way to know if it was going to work, or if my tool was going to hold (yes, that fiberglass is TOUGH) When it came to the lenses I was pretty relax. And the fact that the round reflectors were already glued on and centered really help shaving off the excess. I regret nothing! :D

On another note, I applied the final coat of black on the bumper and the ion arm this weekend. I'll try to post pictures of the completed pieces later. Everything is going pretty well! :)
#234839
Nice lens fix up, Filandrius.
I've been pondering the same lens install dilemma. I smoothed the inside of my shell some, but not that much yet.
Looks good!
#234841
gbrob wrote:Nice toys. :D
They are, ain't they? :P

Like I said earlier, the Bumper and the Ion Arm are completed. Here's some pictures:

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Resin Bumper by Exoray. No much to do on it, it's already almost perfect when you get it. Sanded, wet sanded, painted silver, then black. Metallic label by theonlytexaspete (Sold out! Sorry! :P)

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Resin Ion Arm by Exoray. Same quality. Aluminum/copper cap by jpa35, Legris elbow from masteryoda, resistors and tubing from Colin. Everything is screwed in place, in tapped holes, with Teflon tape on the threads.

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Now before anyone (or everyone :P) tells me that it's not yellow tubing that goes on the bottom of the resistor, let me explain a little trick I found: For the yellow 5/32" tubing, I dipped it in boiling water then I slipped it on the resistor. I couldn't do that for the blue 1/4", until I realized that the ID is around 5/32". I dipped 5/32" tubing, slipped it on, cut it, dipped the 1/4" and slipped it on the 5/32". Very tight fit, tougher than glue. That yellow bit is waiting for the PPD tubing.

That's all for now! :)
#234854
Man does that look good!

Is the Krylon silver you're using an actual primer or just regular paint? I've been wondering how to paint my pack and I wanted to do the silver for weathering but don't want three or more coats on it. A silver primer and black top layer would be perfect. Also, is that a matte/satin/flat black?
#234889
My silver paint is Krylon Fusion for Plastics - Metallic Shimmer - Nickel Shimmer. As far as I know, I'm the first to try this to paint the whole pack, including the fiberglass shell. I choose this method for the exact same reasons as you. According to the website, Fusion bonds easily to most plastics, PVC, resin and more (including fiberglass) dries fast (within 1 hour) and is fully chip resistant after 7 days (that's why I wait that long before the black paint) No need for primer, and if I bump into something and it chips, it won't chip to the fiberglass, only to the silver coat.

For the black paint, I'm using Krylon BBQ & Stove Paints - BBQ & Stove Black. It gives a tough, scratch-proof, satin-black metallic finish that's really realistic for anything that's supposed to be metallic and black. I've used it a lot in the past, and it never failed me. I've painted blasters, airsoft guns, my pulse rifle, and now I'm painting my Proton Pack with it. Plus I love the color. Really nice shine without being gloss. I'm also using it without any primer on my aluminum parts.

Hope that helps!
#234891
This is looking really, really good. Great photos!

I'm still not 100% convinced I will go with the silver underneath the paint for mine, as I'm still a bit old school with my weathering techniques. However I have a feeling the further you progress with this... the more of a believer I might become of that method. ;) Keep up the great work!
#234892
1.21 Gigawatts wrote:This is looking really, really good. Great photos!

I'm still not 100% convinced I will go with the silver underneath the paint for mine, as I'm still a bit old school with my weathering techniques. However I have a feeling the further you progress with this... the more of a believer I might become of that method. ;) Keep up the great work!
Thanks! I'm getting the hang of it. It's been a while since I took props pictures. :P

Yeah, that's what I thought. Dry-brushing ot simply silver paint with a sponge will do pretty well to simulate chipping. But the beauty of the silver coat is that when you bump into something, or if you chip the black paint by accident, the pack will weather itself! That's what I really like. I used this method with great success on my pulse rifle, except back then I used primer and regular silver paint, which was kind of a bitch. Fusion is giving really great results this time! :)
#235056
Filandrius wrote:My silver paint is Krylon Fusion for Plastics - Metallic Shimmer - Nickel Shimmer. As far as I know, I'm the first to try this to paint the whole pack, including the fiberglass shell. I choose this method for the exact same reasons as you. According to the website, Fusion bonds easily to most plastics, PVC, resin and more (including fiberglass) dries fast (within 1 hour) and is fully chip resistant after 7 days (that's why I wait that long before the black paint) No need for primer, and if I bump into something and it chips, it won't chip to the fiberglass, only to the silver coat.

For the black paint, I'm using Krylon BBQ & Stove Paints - BBQ & Stove Black. It gives a tough, scratch-proof, satin-black metallic finish that's really realistic for anything that's supposed to be metallic and black. I've used it a lot in the past, and it never failed me. I've painted blasters, airsoft guns, my pulse rifle, and now I'm painting my Proton Pack with it. Plus I love the color. Really nice shine without being gloss. I'm also using it without any primer on my aluminum parts.

Hope that helps!
It helps a lot! I think I may have made up my mind (or seriously narrowed down) on my painting options. I really love how your bumper and ion arm turned out. Looking forward to seeing your pack painted with the same finish.
#235069
Hey Filandrius,
What type Dremal bit worked best to thin out your lighting holes. Or a mini-saw blade?

I really want to thin mine, before the lenes go on.

Great work you've done on the Pack!

~Steve
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